F1 cars to look faster on TV in 2019 thanks to a few ‘tricks’

Formula 1 wants to offer TV viewers a better representation of the cars’ speed by adjusting the positions of its trackside cameras and adding a few production “tricks”.

For all the criticism often directed towards F1 by its fan base, today’s Grand Prix cars remain a spectacular sight, at least when experienced in person.

F1’s speed and sound dissipate however when they’re transferred through the cables, a relative loss that Liberty Media wants to regain this year with a few production tweaks, as Formula 1’s head of TV and Media Dean Locke explained to Autosport.

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“There’s a big push for 2019 to reflect the speed of the sport,” said Locke.

“There’s a rethink on all camera positions. If you’re in the grandstand and watch them, they look incredible, don’t they?

“Camera angles, or lenses, can cheat that quite a lot, and make them look not so dramatic and not quite as quick.

“So we looked at different ways to do that, a few little tricks. We’ve always been good at doing whip-pans to show the high speed of the cars, making them look a little bit more edgy in places.

“There were some tracks last year – in Japan for instance – where we really highlighted where these cars are good.”

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To enhance the muffled sound of F1’s hybrid engines, a main talking point among the fans since 2014, Formula 1 experimented with microphone positioning and digital processing.

While audio has improved, Locke insisted that F1 will pursue its efforts in the sound department.

“We’ve done a lot more around the car and on the car. If you look at the pictures, they tend to be at the front, and the audio out the back.

“It is successful, but at some tracks it’s better than others. The Honda engines sounded really good last year. We’ve done some really exciting stuff on that.”

Last season, TV viewers enjoyed a whole new package of on-screen and on-board graphics, with the halo acting as a digital display.

Locked revealed that more graphics linked to additional insight and info shall be introduced as F1 leverages its relationship with Amazon Web Services.

“We have graphics that can actually explain, ‘He started on those tyres, he’s going to stop then,’ while actually making it more dynamic, because if the VSC comes out it can throw those kind of things out,” Locke said.

“We’re using all the data from Friday and Saturday to come up with that algorithm of what we think will happen. If we can explain that in a simple and easy to read manner, it will be a huge win.”